The Mission Continues (2)

The Mission Continues

Part 3:4 All People need a colony of heaven that practice phileo love.

Hebrews 13:1-2; Matthew 25:44-46; Luke 7:44-47

It is possible and not at all improbable that any one of us, at least those who live in the city or suburbs, could be born, live, and die without ever sharing a meal with Jesus or one of his angels.

Let’s prepare our hearts to receive God’s word today

Ha-Foke-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

De-Cola-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

Mashiach-Bah

Turn it, and turn it, everything you need is in it.

Reflect on it, grow old and gray with it.

Do not turn from it.

The Messiah is in it.

(Matthew 25:31–46, HCSB)

Matthew 25:31–46 HCSB

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you took care of Me; I was in prison and you visited Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?’ “And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take Me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of Me.’ “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?’ “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:1–2, HCSB)

Hebrews 13:1–2 HCSB

Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.

This is God’s Word to us today.

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The job of an epistle like Hebrews is to deliver rich theological truths and commands boiled down to their most simple form. Yet, there is a problem with this simple form of the command, it just gives too much room for non-sensical discussions about “but what does brotherly-love really mean?” And must we really show hospitality since we have a hospitality industry in our modern world: let them get hotel or I will pay for them to get a room.

That is why we need the story. The story fills out the meaning. The writer of Hebrews knew this and that is why he quickly and vaguely references eating a meal with angels unaware. I say it is vague because he does mention one specific example. And, there are many examples of Jews and Greeks entertaining angels unaware.

The Jewish mind would have immediately drawn up images of Abraham eating a meal with God and Lot risking life to show hospitality to the two visiting angels in Sodom. Abraham and Lot did not know they were hosting angels, or God himself, until later after the hospitality. And, to the Greeks reading this letter they would have remembered ancient legends about figures in their history who unknowingly entertained a stranger only to later find out it was an angel. And, they might have even recalled that Zeus was the “god of hospitality” amongst those who formerly worshiped the pantheon of Greek gods. And for Jews, the God of the Torah as the master Host because he built a cosmos and a good earth and he created man to live and share in this wonderful planet, and he invited Abraham’s stock to inhabit his Holy Land. The story confirms the command, it hedges it in.

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The story I want us to keep in our minds as we meditate on hospitality is this future story that Jesus told. A story that is always happening, and one day we will be part of this story for better or worse. And this story has been ruined by far too many "textnicians." A textnician is a person who develops a problem-solving habit approach to the Bible. He figures out what does and does not fit and then sands down the rough edges to make the Bible feel more comfortable. I want to warn you about becoming a "textnician." A textnician will nullify one command of Scripture with another. A textnician loves to depersonalize Scripture's wisdom into sound bites instead of God's personal counsel to man. The textnician hears and hears but never listens. He will look and look but never see. I have witnessed "textnicians" go to work on these precious commands and stories and it always sickens me to taste their fruit.

Once I was sitting in a lecture by a famous textnician at my seminary. He was waxing eloquent on the Rich Man and Lazarus - a story that is all about an unhospitable rich man. This textnician knew the passage's Jewish background, the symbolic meaning of all the clothes' colors. He could even pinpoint with an almost perfect accuracy where Abraham's bosom was and where the Rich Man was in Hell. He wowed the crowd when he said, "the poor man has a name "Lazarus," but the rich man is never named." I was sure he was unraveling the deep mysteries of the universe before my eyes.

I was held captive like a boy watching a lion-tamer bringing that powerful predator under his complete control. He had that story under his thumb confidently. I was dazzled by it. Then there came a question from the audience, "Professor, it seems the rich man goes to hell for not being hospitable to poor Lazarus," Professor, "Will I go to hell for not being hospitable?" There was silence. The story bore its teeth at the textnician and growled.

But with one flicker of this textnician's theological whip, he brought the beast back under his submission. He said to the student, "Jesus spoke about the Jewish dispensation before grace, and the Jews are judged by works. BUT, we are Christians in a new dispensation, and we are saved by grace through faith and only go to Hell because of unbelief in Jesus and not because we neglect to show hospitality to the poor."

The audience breathed a sigh of relief. We were scared because we have all neglected a Lazarus. The Lion had been tamed. Until the next question came, "But Professor, what about in Matthew 25:40-46, Matthew 25:46 when Jesus told the lambs they were going to eternal life for their hospitality but the goats were going to hell for neglecting to do the same?"

Matthew 25:46 HCSB

“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Then they too will answer, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?" Then He will answer them, "I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either." And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:44–46, HCSB)

The textnician was unmoved by the text's growling, unaffected by the Lion on all four legs, ready to consume this textnician, but he did not flinch or blush. He said, "Again, don't you understand that this belongs to a future dispensation where the Jews are going to be tried for their "deeds," but you and I are Christians who are saved by grace through faith." Everyone in the room breathed in a deep sigh of relief. The Lion had been tamed, and there was nothing to fear, nothing different to do except go about our lives as usual. We are saved by grace, and Jesus hospitality to others somehow makes up for my lack of hospitality so we don’t really have to worry about the passages, right?!

Later, when the lecture was over, I snuck into the text on my own, "And I freed the Lion from its cage." I was scared of that Lion. He was free from the whip of the Textnician, I took one glance into the Lion's eyes, and I said, "I am 'The Goat.'" It roared at me, stuck its claw in my heart, and I fell down in submission. Fell on my face prostrate to it and swore an oath "to not neglect to show hospitality."

A textnician will never ask the question, "Why am I such an inhospitable goat?" No, the textnician will only ask, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?"

A textnician lives in a world of abstractions. A textnician loves it when I give a definition like, Hospitality is a "visible form of God's invisible grace." It sounds so lovely and is such a well-packed little sentence. He or she can just use it at their discretion when and wherever it pleases them.

But when I say, "I need you to open your home to a stranger or an ex-con." The textnician says, "I can't do that. That would put my family at risk. I would not be a good steward of my possessions that God has given me. Besides, I have an alarm on my house, and they would need that code, and it would not be safe to give it. And besides, I will just pay for them to stay in a hotel."

And I will say to the textnician, "But Jesus says, "whatever you do not do for them" not what the hotel does or does not do for them. Your personal presence is required." Biblical hospitality means living out a conviction that "my life belongs to others just as much as it belongs to myself.”[1] And that is what Jesus meant when he said, "Love as I have loved you. No greater love does one have than to lay down his life for his friends." To lay it down means my life is to be put into service, even sacrificial service, for others.

They will inevitably respond, "But Pastor, you read 'for friends' and not strangers. That is where the command hedges the textnician in:

Let brotherly love continue.

Don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers.

The answer is both: friends and strangers. The commands are short and to the point so that you and I will find it hard to be a textnician for very long. These commands have a universal situation in mind: Situation 1, where I am done being agreeable to another Christian who has made me mad. And, situation 2 where I have a good reason to not show hospitality to that strange person.

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I want to free the textnician and say to him or her, “You are making a big mistake. You must not have understood what you read or heard. Don’t you realize what you are about to give up? You are about to give up sharing a drink, a meal, a moment with Jesus? You are giving up ultimate joy, eternal bliss.”

I want to tell them, “I know you want to help the poor, the vulnerable, the outcasts, people of a different color. But you keep feeling like you need to hide your checkbook first and lock away your valuables.” You don’t really want to live this way. This is like hell.

And I want to say to them, “It is not that you are fearful of a stranger. You hate the stranger seeking your help. Not with robust violent hate but a smoldering disdain that despises anyone to unlike yourself. There is not going to be any joy in your future. There is no hope for this path.

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I think the goats Jesus addressed are at the colony of heaven being written to in Hebrews. I believe these goats lived a basically good life. For the most part, we would all say that they had an excellent moral high-ground, but something isn’t working. The goats say as much:

“What have we missed? If we would have known the stranger was safe, was You, Jesus, we would have done something!”

The goats are not followers of Jesus. They just want to get something from Jesus. That is why they can’t see him because he does not look like he can offer them anything. The world of the goats and our world are not too different. We all seem to work with the assumption that strangers aren’t worth it because they can’t offer us anything. And that people better have a good reason for needing our generosity. There is an entire section of the Christian self-help industry built on premises that allow for brotherly love to not continue and for the neglect of hospitality. I call it Billy Goat Christianity - piecemealed faith made up of one part culture and one-part religious talk. It always takes away from the Bible as much as it gives to it. A proverbial monkey’s paw. It does not produce followers of Jesus but consumers of religion.

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The story and the command will not let us short-sale the duration or limits of brotherly love or showing love to strangers. Do you know why? It is the keyword that appears in both of the commands: Phileo

Let brotherly love (phileo-adelphia) continue.

Don’t neglect to show hospitality (phileo-Xenos) to strangers.

Phileo, relational-love, is the most concrete and intimate term in the Greek language. Someone will say, No, Agape “love” is the closest term. No, Agape is the most abstract and comprehensive. Phileo is the most concrete and intimate. Agape lives 30,000 feet in the air. I can play around all day with this word and wonder as to its meaning and implications. Phileo is two feet in front of my face. Phileo means to want to give a hug while pausing in between to smile with your whole face as you wrapt them in your arms. [2]

Remember when the sisters sent word to Jesus about Lazarus, and they said:

“Lord, the one You love (phileo) is sick.”” (John 11:3, HCSB)

They were saying, “Lord, your best-friend that loved you as much as you loved him, the one you share so many things in common with, share memories with is sick.” No pun intended, you are probably sick of me quoting Song of Songs 1:2. This time, it is from the Greek Septuagint that rightly translates the word kiss with the Greek word “phileo.”

“Oh, that he would kiss (phileo) me with the kisses (phileo) of his mouth! For your love (phileo) is more delightful than wine.” (Song of Solomon 1:2, LXX)

That God is love (Agape) is common knowledge, but God’s love is phileo towards us is special revelation. That He is affectionate towards us, yearning after us, gets two inches in front of our faces, smiles with bright eyes, and then kisses us on the cheek and squeezes us tightly, that is the phileo of God towards us who believe. And that is what we are supposed to reciprocate out to Christians and Strangers.

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Let brotherly love (phileo-adelphia) continue.

Don’t neglect to show hospitality (phileo-xenos) to strangers

There are two commands here, not just one. The commands are placed in the present imperfect tense. That means there is no end or limit to where they can apply or how often. The one-word phileo equally applies to people you call your “brother or sister in the Lord” and to a “stranger.” Despite conflicts you have with other Christians, let phileo love continue towards them. Despite how much you want to create an excuse to get out of being hospitable, don’t, don’t give yourself that excuse. The word neglect does not mean forgetfulness of a thing but the purposeful non-use of the item. Like when you hide a precious diamond or jewelry when a particular guest comes over because you fear if they saw they might want to take advantage of you. Don’t neglect to show, bring out, put on full display your phileo love to strangers. It is an intimate gift.

This love is so unique, so very personal, and will make you vulnerable. So vulnerable that most people listening to this message will have already found an excuse to limit phileo love to certain Christians and Strangers. And that will feel very natural and very safe for you. It is less painful to guard yourself against this kind of love, but it is not advantageous for your spiritual growth.

Here is a picture I have found very helpful. I learned it from a book by Norbert Wiener.[3] In the early stages of development, creatures with exoskeletons (that is, skeletons on the outside, like crabs and beetles) have all the advantages, as they are protected from disaster. But at a certain point, they lose the advantage. Survival is at a higher rate, but development stops. Even when they molt into a different form, there is no development because there is no memory. They don’t carry their development with them. Creatures with Endoskeletons (that is, with their skeletons on the inside, like kittens and humans) are much more disadvantaged at first, being highly vulnerable to outside danger. But if they survive through the tender care and protection of others, they can help develop higher forms of consciousness.

Here is what I am saying, don’t be like a crab with a hardened exterior, be like a kitten, soft, sweet, and everyone’s best friend. All kidding aside, the word hospitality means opening the door, letting down the guard, so others can find a place to experience your phileo love. A love they need so they can grow, and you need so you can grow.

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What must we do? The simplest and most straightforward answer is simple. Use your possessions as gifts given to you by your Heavenly Father. Use the stuff you have as a simple way of showing real phileo love. Use the things of creation, this marvelous material world, and use the things of your personhood, your capacity to choose and express love. Use what you have in your heart and hands right now.

At a deeper level, you will need to learn to "unbend yourself." An early Jesus follower named Julianus tells his disciples not to forget to relax and let go now and then, especially when guests arrive. Hospitality calls for it. His actual words are, "my spiritual brethren . . . derive enjoyment from my unbending myself."[4] In other words, practices of hospitality take precedence at times over your "busy schedule" and "to-do-list." Here he refers to the regular observance of fasting, which must be broken to "unbend oneself" and share one's table with guests. Hospitality, as an expression of love, is a higher virtue even than fasting.

Today, we might say something like "loosen up a little," but that feels very negative. I like unbending myself because it means merely letting myself live for others rather than bending myself to my daily schedule and grind.

I feel sure most of us will not be choosing between fasting and showing hospitality to unbend ourselves. It will be between a night on the couch with my family or a night on the couch with my family and a guest. It will be between going to work-out or sharing a meal with someone. Like Julianus, I would agree that hospitality is a higher virtue even than family time, mealtime, prayer time, me time. And, it has an ever-higher reward: serving Jesus himself or maybe hosting God himself in your home.

I think we are all smart enough to know that showing hospitality is not the same as entertaining. Karen Maines has pointed out that entertainment and hospitality are two different kinds of events. Writing in Moody magazine, she observes:

Entertaining says, "I want to impress you with my home, my clever decorating, my gourmet cooking." Hospitality, seeking to minister, says, "This home is a gift from my Master. I use it as He desires.…" Hospitality aims to serve.

Entertainment subtly declares, "This home is mine, an expression of my personality. Look, please, and admire." Hospitality whispers, "What is mine is yours."

Entertaining looks for payment—the words, "My, isn't she a remarkable hostess.…" With no thought of reward, hospitality takes pleasure in giving, doing, loving, serving

The model for entertaining is the slick magazines with their alluring pictures of foods and rooms. The model for hospitality is caring for strangers and Jesus’ folk. It is Abraham eating a meal with God unaware or Lot brining in angelic guests at the cost of his family’s lives.[5]

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There is something about the story in Matthew and the commands in Hebrews 13:1-2 that seems very American. In my lifetime, there has been a radical shift in culture, religious and secular, from accountability and forgiveness to a culture of canceling people out and turning friends and strangers into villains. Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people anxiously clinging to their political views, ideologies, and social-justice theories. They do so with callous hearts and hardened exteriors.. They are inclined and ready to destroy the life of anyone who falls out of line with their opinions.

Hannah Horowitz, a staff writer at the Seattle Seahawk, wrote an opinion piece where she said the following:

A few days ago, I was scrolling through social media when I came across a reposted picture of a woman wearing a shirt that said the words "Drunk Wives Matter" in the style of a BLM (Black Lives Matter) shirt. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the original post to read the comments. In a matter of minutes, people on the platform had joined together to find this woman's employer, her property owner, extended family and even the person who watches her dog. Several had already contacted her employer and her property owner in hopes of getting her fired from her job and out of her apartment.

While her decision to buy the shirt and post a photo of it was deplorable, those who were "canceling" her do not seem to understand it that only creates a sense of resentment. This is not accountability. This is harassment.[6]

Later on in her article, she quotes former President Barak Obama, who weighed in on the issue of cancel culture, saying, "This is not activism."

Horowitz, Obama, they are both right. Our culture is at an all-time hostility crisis high. It has become almost commonplace for people, religious people, to call out, shame publicly, boycott celebrities and average joes alike with the consequence that people have lost jobs, careers, shunned by their own families, and sometimes destroying marriages. It sickens me because many times, it is religious people doing it.

It terrifies me that we live in a culture that does not know how to enact redemption. When did we forget that saying "I forgive you" does not mean forgetting history? Still, shouldn't forgiveness mean there is a possibility of life after the wrong was done?

I believe that many religious people with a piecemealed faith are guilty of neglecting to show hospitality and extending love to Jesus’ folk. They are also guilty of intentionally turning brothers and strangers into villains. They are the goats, refusing to show any kind of love, taking delight in villainizing instead of redeeming others. They are guilty of not enacting any form of redemptive love: brotherly or to a stranger.

We are in danger of becoming a generation after the Pharisee Simon…

(Luke 7:44–47, HCSB)

Luke 7:44–47 HCSB

Turning to the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she, with her tears, has washed My feet and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing My feet since I came in. You didn’t anoint My head with olive oil, but she has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Simon, like the goats, had a seeing problem. Goats only want to see people like themselves, to one degree or another. Simon wanted her canceled by Jesus. No life for her after her wrongs. Why didn’t Jesus just cancel her out? And he was planning the same for Jesus. The goat generation is here, but so is Lion and there will always be his sheep living in the story and obeying the command.

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It is possible and not at all improbable that any one of us, at least those who live in the city or suburbs, who feed on the frenzy of social media, could be born, live, and die without ever sharing a meal with Jesus or one of his angels. What a tragedy.

I have been very impressed by the words of Karl Barth, who said, “We are not allowed to take sin as seriously as we take grace.” Some refuse to let sin have the final word, who always give grace the first word, the middle word, and the last word, they let phileo love continues, they never neglect to show hospitality, they have dined with the King and did not even know it.

I want to live this Way, the Jesus Way, and I want to do it together with you.

[1] Nouwen, Henri J. M. . Reaching Out (p. 11). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[2] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1056.

[3] Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (Jackson, TN: Da Capo, 1991).

[4] Amy Oden, And You Welcomed Me: A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity

[5] Morgan, Robert J. Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes. Electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000.

[6] Hannah Horowitz, OPINION: Cancel culture is toxic and does more harm than good, The Seahawk, Jan 24, 2021